Today's businesses are becoming more and more dependent upon computer systems, including network computer systems, for their day-to-day operations. As can be appreciated, the requirement for minimum down-time of these computer systems is imperative, especially in network computer systems, where many users can be affected when a single component in the systems fails.
Some of the current computer technologies have started utilizing "hot pluggable", redundant power supplies, whereby if one supply fails or needs replacing, the power to the computer system is maintained by the second power supply, such that the computer system does not need to be powered down while the defective power supply is being repaired or replaced. However, as can be appreciated, there are many other components such as controller interface, within a computer system that can fail, causing system downtime.
Many current computer systems use a small computer systems interface (SCSI) for connecting peripheral components, such as scanners, hard disk drives and compact disk drives, to the computer system via a standard hardware interface, which uses standard SCSI commands. If the SCSI controller fails, access by the users to the device drives controlled by the SCSI is prevented.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to have a hot pluggable, SCSI backplane interface that can receive redundant, interchangeable SCSI controller cards.